Anyone know the venue/date of this early photo?

bleach · Post by **bleach** » 04 Dec 2012 16:25

I bought the book - 'Edie Factory Girl' by Nat Finkelstein & David Dalton today and inside is an early pic i've never seen before. It looks to be just after a gig (people putting their coats on) and possibly a university/town hall venue judging by the room. There is also a cinema screen above the stage, but no drum kit..So maybe its a Warhol movie screening rather than a regular VU gig??

Anyone any ideas...

[As a heads up for UK-ers this book is available from the great Fopp shops for ?3 - bargain!]

alfredovu · Post by **alfredovu** » 04 Dec 2012 16:52

Wow... NIce shoot!!

This is my guess: March 9, 1966 Scott Hall (Rutgers University), New Brunswick, New Jersey

Why? Sterl is wearing "in full white", and there are some similar shots of him at Filmakers (feb 66)
This is the first University they visited after that Feb gig.

Then searched for the venue and found this
http://whereru.rutgers.edu/gigapans/52/ ... cture-Hall

Seems to me the very same place

Alfredo

bleach · Post by **bleach** » 04 Dec 2012 17:11

Thanks Alfredo that was quick, yes you're right about the venue. It matches exactly - shame they got rid of the nice wood around the stage.
So I wonder was Moe not involved, can't see her drum kit, was it was moved earlier / did they do sets without drums.....interesting - huh!

taxine · Post by **taxine** » 04 Dec 2012 18:07

alfredovu wrote:Wow... NIce shoot!!

Why? Sterl is wearing "in full white", and there are some similar shots of him at Filmakers (feb 66)
This is the first University they visited after that Feb gig.

Alfredo

Sterling: "At Rutger's we were all dressed entirely in white. The effect, with all the films and lights projected on us, was invisibility."

Great book i got it ,think was on of the last gig Edie made with the EPI troupe,even Billy Name was there but you got these pic.from an Edie Sedgwick regarded book,that's the mayor clue,the early exploding days...

http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/li ... f6566.html

ps:Thanks for post it,didn't remember the picture.

Sheila Klein · Post by **Sheila Klein** » 05 Dec 2012 17:45

What an amazing photo -- I'd have thought these early shows uniformly laid their audiences to waste (for better or worse), yet these people seem decidedly umoved by the experience, as if it were just another evening out. Perhaps the problem was that it was a seated concert, rather than a more immersive event.

But I remain unconvinced that the event was the Rutgers show of 3-9-66. That show was clearly documented as having been an Exploding Plastic Inevitable event, yet I see no evidence here of any components of the EPI retinue: no Gerard, no Edie or Mary, no Andy, no Paul Morrissey ... no Moe! Note also that while Sterling is dresssed all in white, and Lou too appears to have been in all white before donning his jacket, John, as best I can make out, was dressed in all black! In general, there is no sense of festivity here, which was one of the great hallmarks of the EPI presentation.

Given all that, I can't help but think that instead of the Rutgers show this photo is of the pre-VU, performing one of their improvised film scores. Apart from the similar-looking room, every other element we can see in the photo aligns with the details of those events.

--Phil M.

MJG196 · Post by **MJG196** » 06 Dec 2012 01:19

bleach wrote:So I wonder was Moe not involved, can't see her drum kit, was it was moved earlier / did they do sets without drums.....interesting - huh!

If I were to guess, I'd say that this is shot BEFORE a VU performance. And there were TWO shows that day. A few things to think about:

- The guitars aren't out there, but the amps are.
- Nobody is making their way to the door. People are doing lots of things: talking, facing the stage, coats on, coats off, but many are facing the stage.
- Why would Lou, Cale, and Sterl be out there onstage - without any instruments - just standing around if the show was over? Would they have taken their guitars off the stage and then come back out to just talk to each other?
- In Steven Shore's photo book, Nico is dressed in black.

Does anyone have these articles (both noted on the VU Web Page): Warhol and Company Will Film Rutgers Uptight by Daniel Bayard Haber, in Rutgers Daily Targum, March 2, 1966; untitled & uncredited review reproduced in Velvet Underground Scrapbook Volume 1 (p. 4-5)

I realize this is all conjecture on my part, so take it for what it's worth...Nothin'! I think S.K. is right and this may have been a film score performance and NOT an EPI.

As for the drums, it could always be that they weren't set up yet. Did she ever perform in the back of a room? Moe is on Facebook...if anyone is friends with her there, perhaps she can answer a question?!

bleach · Post by **bleach** » 06 Dec 2012 02:39

Oliviers entry -ta!
March 9, 1966 - Scott Hall (Rutgers University), New Brunswick, New Jersey - Rutgers Up-Tight
Poster: "The Rutgers Film Society presents Andy Warhol's "Underground New York" featuring two films in color & double screen. "Vinyl" Staring Gerard Malanga & Edie Sedgwick Written by Ronnie Tavel. "Lupe" featuring Edie Sedgwick & Billy Linich. Plus onstage The Velvet Underground and Nico. "Rutgers Uptight" to be filmed in audience with Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick, Nico, Barbara Rubin, Gerard Malanga, Danny Williams, Billy Linch, Paul Morissey, the Velvet Underground. Wednesday March 9th at 8:00 & 10:00".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My guess would be -

8pm Warhol FILMS with Reed/Cale/Morrison hanging around (some equipment on stage) maybe odd noises from them during films maybe not (?)
THIS PHOTO taken at end of films as older 'art' crowd leave > VU&Nico etc come in / drums go on stage
10PM VU&Nico on / full on EPI gig&film experience

The review of Rutgers night in the VU Scrapbook seems to support this discussing films - Vinyl then..
"After the briefest of pauses, onstage came The Velvet Underground, a four member musical group.."

then further says
?By the second show, not as crowded, Barbara Rubin had discovered that the screen was retractable and so the movies were shown on a constantly shifting background.?

The S Shore pics are not of the gig merely in the corridor of Warhol & Nico, so don't prove/disprove events either way (except to say they were there)..

Just look at the audience - does that look like a VU crowd eh NO - an art house kino audience YES!

peppergomez · Post by **peppergomez** » 06 Dec 2012 07:34

Great stuff. Thanks for posting.

MJG196 · Post by **MJG196** » 06 Dec 2012 23:47

bleach wrote:THIS PHOTO taken at end of films as older 'art' crowd leave > VU&Nico etc come in / drums go on stage
10PM VU&Nico on / full on EPI gig&film experience

Just one thing, bleach. It may be semantics, but it was not called EPI here. Billy Name says it was an Uptight in that Steven Shore book. Was there a difference?

bleach · Post by **bleach** » 07 Dec 2012 00:43

Bigger production I would have thought!

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